THE QUALTROUGH FAMILY

From the Isle of Man to worldwide

QUALTROUGH FROM THE ISLE OF MAN

Articles from the Isle of ManPart 1 of 2

(With apologies to the Kelly family)

From Greenland’s icy mountains

To India’s coral strand;

Along the Colorado

And across the Rio Grande

From Mexico to Mandalay,

Hong Kong to Singapore;

On the banks of the Brahmaputra,

And the hills of Bangalore;

From Cleveland in Ohio

To San Francisco Bay

There’s a world-wide race of rovers

You may come upon some day

You may find them setting fur traps

On the snow line in Alaska,

You may find them driving combines

In the cornbelt of Nebraska,

You may find them drilling oil wells

In the sand of Az-Zahran

And you’ll find there name is Qualtrough,

And they’re from the Isle of Man.

In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,

In Vancouver and St.John,

From Yellowknife to Gypsumville,

From Goosebay to Edmonton;

In Alberta and Ontario,

In logging camps and mines,

In Winnepeg and Ottawa,

In the glare of neon signs

In a thousand northern settlements

On a thousand lakeside shores,

Behind the hardware counters

Of a thousand general stores.

In Wollongong and Woomera,

In Melbourne and Mackay,

In Broken Hill and Brisbane,

In Finke and Flinders Bay;

And you’ll find them up in Arnhem Land,

Yamba, or Yarraloola,

Or riding on a train on the Nullabor Plain

From Naretba to Tarcoola,

You may find them riding boundaries

With horse and tucker bag,

Or camping out in Coopers Creek

With billy can and swag,

You may find them driving transports

Through the blue to Alice Springs

You may find them flying doctors

Who haven’t got their wings.

You may find them putting pineapples

And peaches in a can,

And you’ll find their name is Qualtrough.

And they’re from the Isle of Man

You may find them on a thousand ships

Of a thousand shapes and sorts

That take a thousand cargoes

To a thousand foreign ports.

From London, Glasgow, Liverpool,

Southampton, Bristol, Hull,

To Hamburg, Stockholm, Helsinki,

Marseilles and Istanbul.

To Freetown, Lagos, Capetown,

Manilla, Port of Spain,

Kuwait, Colombo, Buenos Aires,

Christchurch – and back again.

You may find them on the bridges

Of a thousand salt-stained Tramps,

Or checking in the engine rooms

Oil pressures, fuels and amps.

Or on liners, or on tankers,

Wherever ships may sail

Behind the canvas dodgers

Of many a ship’s taffrail.

You may find them on the Oceans,

And on all Seven Seas,

From the Arctic to Antarctica –

What latitude you please.

You may find them in the tropics,

And if you look beneath the tan

You’ll find the name is Qualtrough

And they’re from the Isle of Man

Or you’ll find the name is Callow,

Caley, Callin, Cain

Christian, Corlett, Corrin,

Cowley, Cowell, or Craine.

Or you’ll find the name is Faragher

Or Garrett, or Kaneen,

Kennaugh, Kewley, or Kerruish,

Kissack, Kneale or Kneen.

Or you’ll find their name is Mylchreest

Kelly, Quine, or Quayle,

Quilliam, Quilleash, Quiggin

Shimmin, Quirk, or Sayle.

But no matter what the name is

They share a common birth,

For they all hail from the Island

That’s the grandest place on earth.

And like the cushags blooming in the fields

From Rushen to Lezayre

Those omnipresent Manxmen

Are blooming everywhere.

Author unknown

Submitted by Elizabeth Feisst, Bundaberg, Australia. (January 2001)

© 2021 by Malcolm Qualtrough, Elizabeth Feisst and the late John Karran Qualtrough. 

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© Copyright by Malcolm Qualtrough, Elizabeth Feisst and the late John Karran Qualtrough.